Ghana, mete wo nne

“We are going to demonstrate to the world, to the other nations, young as we are, that we are prepared to lay our own foundation.”

Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, first Prime Minister of Ghana
March 6, 1957

At midnight, fifty years ago, church bells rang and jubilant crowds filled the streets of Accra, Ghana’s largest city. On March 6th, thousands watched and like the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., many wept when the red, gold, and green flag of the new country of Ghana was raised and Kwame Nkrumah declared, “The battle is ended. Ghana, our beloved country, is free forever.”

The Gold Coast

On that day, the former British colony known as the Gold Coast became the first African country to achieve independence. Until 1957 all African countries were colonies, that is to say, rather than being controlled by native Africans, they were ruled by Europeans. During the era of the slave trade, the British imposed their views of order, religion and law on the many cultures that made up the Gold Coast. After slavery, the legal system, the educational system, and the government reflected European rather than African values. Even after the slave trade was abolished in 1807, the British ruled indirectly: local African kings made decisions for their communities, but the Council of Kings were bound to follow English law and were beholden to a colonial governor appointed by the British king.

The End of Colonialism

Within this colonial system, ordinary people had no vote and no voice in policies set by their country. However, over the course of years, ordinary citizens, as well as African intellectuals, began to agitate for social change; they formed organizations in Ghana and abroad that advocated for African independence. When Nkrumah, who had been studying law and economics in Britain, returned to the Gold Coast, he became secretary general of the United Gold Coast Convention (a nationalist party) and rallied supporters of independence. He and other activists were imprisoned, but nonetheless continued to organize strikes that so crippled the economy the British decided to move the colony towards independence. Appointed leader of government business and later Prime Minister by the British Government, Nkrumah guided the country known as the Gold Coast to freedom from British rule. He named the newly independent nation “Ghana” after an ancient West African empire. Ghana was the first of many African countries to declare independence from colonial rule. Its neighbors, Togo, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, declared independence in 1960 and by the end of the 1960s most of the continent was self-governed.

Pan Africanism

In addition to heading the Ghanaian independence movement, Nkrumah was a powerful voice of Pan-Africanism. He and other African leaders saw the need for political unity amongst all African nations. Nkrumah proclaimed, “It is clear that we must find an African solution to our problems, and that this can only be found in African unity.” African countries needed to begin cooperating politically and economically if the continent was to escape the devastating effects of slavery and European colonialism, claimed Nkrumah. Along with leaders of other recently independent African States, Nkrumah established the Organization of African Unity (OAS), which is known today as the African Union.

Pan Africanism and the African Diaspora

Pan-Africanism went beyond the continent, however. Nkrumah and other black leaders understood “the global history of racial inequality” (Pierre & Shipley 735) and saw African liberation as absolutely connected to the struggle of African descended peoples around the globe for equal rights and human dignity. Educated at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University College in London, as well as at Achimota School in Ghana, Nkrumah had ties with black intellectuals around the globe. Pan-Africanists, particularly African-Americans, saw the struggle for Ghanaian independence as part of a broader struggle for black equality, including the fight for civil rights in the US. Attending the independence festivities by the invitation of the fledging Ghanaian government, Martin Luther King, Jr., was able to meet with US Vice-President Richard Nixon and invite him “to come to visit us down in Alabama where we are seeking the same kind of freedom the Gold Coast is celebrating” (qtd in Gaines 81). After independence, a number of African-Americans, including Maya Angelou and Malcolm X, went to Ghana to experience a non-segregated and black-led environment.

At the urging of Nkrumah, many emigrated to build a new black nation in an ancestral homeland. One of the most famous of these settlers was noted intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois. After a life spent fighting racism, studying the condition of African-Americans in the US, and the place of the African Diaspora in the world. Dr. Du Bois and his wife, Shirley Graham Du Bois, moved to Ghana in 1961. They came at the invitation of President Nkrumah specifically to work on the Encyclopedia Africana project and received Ghanaian citizenship six months before Du Bois’ death in 1963. Du Bois was given a state funeral and his memorial in Accra contains his most prized possessions.

Nkrumah’s death and the aftermath of independence

Although revered as the father of the Ghanaian nation and African independence, Nkrumah left behind a mixed legacy. The euphoria of independence created high expectations and brought the many challenges of running a free country that had long been dependent on colonial structures developed by the English. In the face of quarreling political factions, ineffective institutions, and charges of corruption, Nkrumah’s government became increasingly authoritarian, imprisoning political enemies and ending political freedoms. In 1966, a group of military officers overthrew the Nkrumah government while Nkrumah was in China, and Lt. General Joseph Ankrah was installed as the new Head of State. Unable to return to Ghana, Nkrumah lived in Guinea, where Guinean President Sékou Touré named him honorary co-President. Although he never returned to Ghana, Nkrumah’s remains were buried in the country he led to independence.

Ghana today—celebrating independence

This year, 2007, is Ghana’s Golden Jubilee, the 50th anniversary of Ghanaian Independence. The Ghanaian government has planned celebrations throughout the year. Ghanaians and people from all over the African Diaspora celebrate 1957 as the beginning of the era of African independence.

Ghanaians celebrating independence in 1957 Ghanaians celebrating the Golden Jubilee in 2007

Sources:

Basil Davidson. Black Star: A View of the Life and Times of Kwame Nkrumah. Oxford: James Curry, 2007; 1973.

“Birthday of a Nation,” Time, March 18, 1957

Roger A. Davidson, Jr. “A question of freedom: African Americans and Ghanaian Independence, “ Negro History Bulletin, July-Sept, 1997.

Kevin K. Gaines, American Africans in Ghana: Black expatriates and the Civil Rights Era. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006.

Kwame Nkrumah, The Autobiography of Kwame Nkrumah. New York: Thomas Nelson and Sons, Ltd. 1957.

Jemima Pierre & Jesse Weaver Shipley, “African/Diaspora History: W.E.B. Dubois and Pan-Africanism in Ghana” in Ghana in Africa and the World: Essays in Honor of Adu Boahen. Trenton, HJ: Africa World Press, 2003.

Simon Robinson, “The Saga of Ghana,” Time, March 8, 2007.